Onirism

About

Onirism is a single player and multiplayer platformer game. It was developed by onirism and was released on October 23, 2025. It received positive reviews from players.

Follow Carol in her wanderings across dream worlds and rescue her plushie kidnapped by a mysterious thief . To succeed, you will undertake the most dangerous and amazing journey and you will...

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81%

Audience ScoreBased on 701 reviews

gameplay54 positive mentions

optimization23 negative mentions

Extensive and varied content with a huge arsenal of unique weapons, outfits, and collectibles.
Engaging and fluid combat and movement mechanics blending platforming with third-person and first-person shooting.
Charming, whimsical art style and music that evoke nostalgia while offering fresh, colorful environments and memorable characters.

Game still exhibits bugs, performance issues, and occasional crashing, with some areas suffering from poor optimization.
Navigation and level design can be confusing and large open areas without effective map support lead to frequent player disorientation.
Certain gameplay elements such as platforming feel clunky or janky, with inconsistent controls and occasional frustrating difficulty spikes.

gameplay
184 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
29%
65%
6%
Gameplay in this game offers a varied, fast-paced mix of third-person shooting, platforming, and exploration reminiscent of classics like Serious Sam and Ratchet & Clank, with a large arsenal, smooth movement mechanics, and frequent gameplay twists keeping it fresh and engaging. However, it is marred by clunky platforming, inconsistent level design, frequent bugs, and poorly implemented mechanics such as enemy respawns and saving, which can lead to frustration despite the core gameplay's enjoyable combat and charm. Overall, while the game shows clear passion and ambition with standout moments and unique content, technical issues and uneven design hold it back from fully realizing its potential.
- “Early reviews highlight its strong variety of weapons, enemy types, and gameplay systems, giving it a distinct identity that feels both playful and unrestrained.”
- “The movement mechanics are especially stand-out - genuinely, some of the best third person shooter combat since like, "Max Payne." I can't recommend it enough; this game surprised the pants off of me.”
- “A lot of the core gameplay can be described as a fast paced shooter mixed with some classic platformer collectathon aspects.”
- “The clunky gameplay mechanics and poor level design tries to evoke Dark Souls as a shooter-platformer rather than aiming for Serious Sam vs Crash Bandicoot.”
- “There is a mountain of issues ranging from janky player interactions, bad overworld and arena layouts, an abundance of band-aid solutions, and most importantly questionable core mechanics making the entire game feel like the developers have not playtested it properly.”
- “Gameplay mechanics: enemies respawn endlessly in labyrinthine areas, and with limited resources and ammo, this leads to tedious and unfair encounters where enemies spawn behind the player in closed rooms, causing cheap deaths.”
story
161 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
15%
83%
2%
The story mode is extensive and packed with varied, colorful levels, offering around 20-30 hours of gameplay filled with charm, humor, and a whimsical tone centered on a young girl retrieving her stolen plushie. While the narrative is simple, sometimes clichéd and lightly developed, its delivery through witty dialogue and character interactions keeps players engaged, though it can suffer from pacing issues, lack of direction, and occasional bugs. Overall, the story excels more in atmosphere and character charm than in complexity, complementing the rich content and enjoyable gameplay rather than standing out as a deep or groundbreaking plot.
- “Be aware that the story mode is much longer than your average FPS or platformer; it's packed with content.”
- “The story mode definitely has about 20 some odd hours of play time, give or take.”
- “The game's story is fairly simple but it's delivered through dialogue that has a lot of wit and charm to it.”
- “The game was not without its flaws; it definitely has some rough edges, and the story sorta feels like it devolves as the game progresses into more of a MacGuffin to push the player forward.”
- “Even after forcing my way through the forced stealth segment, the story progression is bugged, and I am unable to leave the stealth area (and even if I glitch my way out of it, the story still does not progress).”
- “The map offers very little orientation for the multi-layered levels, and the quest log and commentary about your next objectives is too brief. Then there are chests placed in high spots with no proper way to reach them, or essential quest items hidden underwater with zero clues.”
graphics
91 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
37%
56%
7%
Onirism features charming, colorful, and creative visuals with a nostalgic, early-2000s-inspired art style praised for its varied, dreamlike environments and character designs. However, the game suffers from occasional graphical glitches, performance issues, and unoptimized settings that can detract from the experience. Despite these technical drawbacks, the graphics are widely regarded as a key strength that enhances the game's unique atmosphere and appeal.
- “Onirism is a chaotic but highly creative action-adventure shooter that blends colorful dreamlike visuals with fast-paced, gadget-driven combat and platforming.”
- “A platformer with many shooter mechanics, guns that reference older games, levels that wouldn't be out of place in a Ratchet & Clank or Crash Bandicoot title, charming characters and incredible visuals, great use of colors and dreamlike design.”
- “The visuals are clear, colorful, and almost like a digital painting where every level tries to create its own atmosphere, combined with guns that range from toy-like to realistic, always playing with an upbeat yet grayish tone.”
- “There were some graphical issues that occurred here and there (visual glitches etc.) which took away from it all a little bit but definitely minor considering all the game provides.”
- “Even after being in early access for longer than the target demographic has been alive, the game is just unfinished, and extremely glitchy beyond what should be tolerable as eurojank.”
- “Once I'd gotten to the swamp area, my fps was in single digits on any graphics preset high or above.”
humor
88 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's humor is widely praised for its cute, bratty protagonist and witty, sometimes edgy dialogue that evokes classic 90s platformers and comedic storytelling. Players appreciate the varied, clever jokes, charming characters, and frequent funny moments, although some find certain lines less effective or unintentionally humorous due to bugs. Overall, the humor adds a delightful and memorable layer to the gameplay experience.
- “Lovable bratty main character and story, and the humor is also great.”
- “My 40+ hour adventure was captivating, hilarious, and filled with fun references.”
- “Carol's personality throughout the game is direct and no-nonsense in only the way that a hyperconfident child can be, and the dialogue is very often quite funny.”
music
80 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
48%
48%
4%
The music in the game is widely praised for its catchy, dynamic, and varied soundtrack that perfectly complements the whimsical and colorful worlds, often highlighted as a standout feature. While most find it energetic and fitting—especially the combat tracks—some note occasional technical issues such as overlapping with dialogue or looping bugs that detract from the experience. Overall, the soundtrack is deemed a major strength that enhances the atmosphere and gameplay, with many players wishing for an official soundtrack release.
- “An amazing, swinging-pendulum soundtrack that swings from colorful, catchy and cheery to epic, symphonic and spectacular, then to dark, dreadful and suspenseful (Kingdom Hearts, Ratchet & Clank).”
- “The soundtrack is also brilliant, with each zone having its own music that perfectly matches the mood of the zone.”
- “Ranging from beautiful ambient pieces to blood-pumping battle themes, the overall quality of the OST goes from 'pretty good' to 'gonna wake up the neighbors with that banger,' with the latter sentence fitting a great majority of the game's music.”
- “The music is allowed to blare over dialogue in multiple cutscenes and the sound effects layer on top of each other infinitely, which hurt my ears on several occasions when I picked up a ton of pickups at once.”
- “Sometimes the triggers for music to stop or start also break, so when I got a break from the ambient loop I got stuck in an unending combat music loop that wore itself out faster than it probably would've if it were working correctly.”
- “At least the first zone feels like I should be exploring nooks and crannies (because there's chests, and areas that you can go to that the devs seem to want you to look around in but aren't part of the main path) and the music loop is maddening.”
optimization
65 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
6%
59%
35%
The game suffers from widespread optimization issues, including frequent frame drops, stuttering, crashes, and poor performance even on high-end rigs. Many users report that graphical settings have minimal impact on performance, and features like ambient occlusion drastically reduce FPS. Despite ongoing patches improving some aspects, optimization remains a significant problem impacting gameplay smoothness and stability.
- “The devs are patching the game still and QoL + optimizations are getting added thankfully, so I'd still call it an easy recommendation with the note that if you're considering this or another game, maybe get the other game first and check back on this one later once more updates have improved it further.”
- “Update: after the update, the game performance is much better, it runs smoother and faster.”
- “I've seen a few people comment about performance: disabling ambient occlusion fixed every performance issue I had.”
- “The game is highly unoptimized, too slow and unplayable at all.”
- “The game really isn't visually impressive enough to have such an impact on performance.”
- “The first stage (chroma forest) is an unoptimized nightmare that struggles to run the game even at its lowest settings.”
stability
55 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game is consistently described as buggy and unstable, with numerous glitches affecting platforming, animations, saving systems, and overall polish. While many players find the issues frustrating or even game-breaking, others appreciate the game's core experience and passion despite the technical problems. Ongoing patches from the developers are noted, but significant bugs and performance issues remain prevalent.
- “Honestly, I wish I never would have bought this game. It's pretty badly bug-ridden and I got softlocked in the first few hours. It's unlikely I'll be picking this game back up, that's for sure.”
- “I am not recommending it because the platform jumping in this game is broken with bugs and glitches and frustrating to even finish it. If you do a sprint jump, it basically stops you mid-air, making you fall down and killing you every time, also stopping your progress and making you go back to the checkpoint repeatedly.”
- “[Updated: It's been several months and not only is the game still a buggy nightmare with minimal fixes, it also deleted my save file. At this point, the game has earned a permanent negative review. I will never update this review to positive.]”
atmosphere
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
54%
23%
23%
The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its charming, immersive, and artistically crafted environments, blending vibrant visuals, evocative music, and engaging sound design. It creates a hypnotic, dreamy, and inviting world that enhances gameplay and encourages repeated exploration, drawing favorable comparisons to beloved classic titles. Overall, the atmosphere is seen as a key strength, adding depth, enjoyment, and a unique artistic sensitivity to the experience.
- “From the movements, fighting, atmosphere—everything is so hypnotizing to look at. Amazing game 10/10, I'm off to play another save file that's how good it is.”
- “Onirism's world has a magical art style with a vivid color palette and an atmospheric soundtrack that goes way harder than it has any right to, especially in combat sections.”
- “The visuals are clear, colorful and almost like a digital painting where every level tries to create its own atmosphere and then combines that with guns where some of them are more toy-like and some are more like real guns, always playing with that upbeat yet grayish tone.”
- “This last point, immersion, is the game's added value: the settings are assembled with great artistic sensitivity, the sound effects and atmosphere are omnipresent, and their spatialization significantly enhances the gameplay.”
- “The dreamy atmosphere always makes you want to go back and play more.”
replayability
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
67%
The game offers extensive replayability through a large variety of custom and arcade game modes, along with a richly detailed main campaign and numerous secrets to uncover. Players appreciate the diverse weapon and outfit customization, as well as engaging boss fights and combat, which collectively provide many hours of high-quality content even during early access. Overall, the game encourages repeated playthroughs with its substantial content and evolving gameplay.
- “And the game is huge with lots of replayability on the custom game modes.”
- “Once you're done with the main story, there's still quite a lot of replay value to be had.”
- “Even though still in early access, there is already a huge amount of content to enjoy with various game modes that add a lot of replayability long after completing the still-in-development main campaign/story mode.”
monetization
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
45%
22%
The game is widely praised for its complete absence of microtransactions, DLC, battle passes, or gacha mechanics, offering a large variety of cosmetics and content purely through gameplay. Its affordable price point and lack of monetization pressures make it a refreshing, fully-realized experience compared to many modern titles.
- “No DLC or microtransactions required to get all these cosmetics, which is a big plus for this game.”
- “No microtransactions, but there are still a lot of cosmetics and it's a big game.”
- “No microtransactions, no battle pass, no in-game purchases - just an actual, real video game.”
character development
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
44%
23%
33%
The character development in the game is modest but charming, with a focus on expressive and bold character designs that bring the world to life. While the main character shows some personality and emotional moments, especially in key cutscenes, players feel the narrative could benefit from deeper exploration of her motivations and growth throughout the story. Overall, character design is praised, but the development itself remains somewhat light.
- “I'm not expecting a complex narrative with deep character development but I think the opening events could have benefited from a cutscene where the heroine is reacting to this new world and told us a bit more about herself.”
- “Charming main character and character designs: Carol is adorable in both her English and French voices, tending to be a bit of a brat who only does the right thing if it helps her own goals.”
- “In the cutscene with the spider mom, she looks like she's risking her life to try and tell her she's sorry. I would like to see some character development too, just have her be a little bit nicer the closer she gets to rescuing her bunny.”
- “I'm not expecting a complex narrative with deep character development, but I think the opening events could have benefited from a cutscene where the heroine is reacting to this new world and told us a bit more about herself.”
- “"...wait, no I'm not!" but then in the cutscene with the spider mom, she looks like she's risking her life to try and tell her she's sorry (so is she really sorry? Does she actually care about monsters? I thought she was super mean all this time.) I would like to see some character development too, just have her be a little bit nicer the closer she gets to rescuing her bunny.”
- “I’m also very fond of the character designs, in particular of the villagers.”
emotional
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game delivers a deeply emotional and captivating experience, evoking joy and wonder through its beautiful and expressive storytelling. Despite some technical bugs, players find the narrative heartwarming and consider it a true work of art. Random emotional encounters add depth, enhancing the game's resonance.
- “The developer has created something beautiful, expressive, and deeply emotionally resonant.”
- “This game made me feel a kind of joy and wonder I don’t get often, and I don’t take that lightly.”
- “The story is heartwarming and captivating, one of my favorite stories and games ever. Such amazing work done on this game, a true piece of art.”
grinding
5 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Grinding in the game is widely regarded as tedious and frustrating, with poorly designed platforming sections, awkward camera angles, and lack of fast travel contributing to repetitive and unenjoyable gameplay. While some difficulty is expected, the excessive and tedious nature of these tasks detracts from the overall experience.
- “They're tedious, boring and not fun in the slightest.”
- “And since there is no intra-level fast travelling mechanic, it got tedious trying to open every chest and fighting every enemy (I am looking at you, that one part of the rusty canyon).”
- “Note: I played many similar games/some games this one takes its ideas from (hello Metroid Prime!) and many were not easy, but this is just too tedious compared to the fun overall.”